Behind scenes look at Gunby Hall winter clean

National World - Other Local Sites

The winter clean has begun at the National Trust country house Gunby Hall, where a specialist team of volunteers is busy removing dust and corrosion from over 9,000 artefacts and furniture to preserve them for future generations.

Transcript

00:00 Shedders may be down at the 18th century Gumby Hall, but while the Grade 1 listed house is

00:07 close to the public, inside is a hive of activity.

00:13 Can you explain what you're doing?

00:17 We have this delicate crystalware that's normally kept in a cupboard.

00:20 It has to be cleaned very carefully because it is so delicate.

00:25 So we're only allowed to dry brush it, we're not allowed to use any water near it in case

00:31 any water gets into any cracks that might exist because it's so old.

00:37 The reason that Sue is holding the glass is to keep it very firm and stable so I don't

00:43 push it over with the brush as it's so bulky.

00:48 We're also assessing it as we go along.

00:51 We have sheets like this which note any cracks or chips or anything that's on it so we check

00:56 it each year to make sure there's no further deterioration.

01:00 And it's absolutely a privilege to be able to handle some of the items that are in the

01:04 house that normally we don't get to handle as room guides and certainly the public sometimes

01:10 don't even get to see.

01:11 So we absolutely love doing this.

01:15 Making sure it's all gleaming when they start coming back.

01:19 Absolutely.

01:20 We clean once a year, deep cleaning once a year to ensure everything is dust free and

01:26 as Sue said to make sure it's all assessed for no further deterioration.

01:32 I'm Wendy Jackson and I'm Senior Collectionist and House Officer here at Gumby Hall.

01:37 Now the hall is closed to the public isn't it but there is a lot going on.

01:43 There is a lot going on.

01:44 So we do have a very short period in the winter when actually the house isn't open to visitors

01:49 but we are frantically at work ensuring that we are caring for our collection in the best

01:54 ways possible to make sure that we maintain it for future generations.

01:58 Now there's some volunteers in doing a big clean.

02:01 Can you tell me about that?

02:03 I can.

02:04 Obviously the collection within Gumby is over 9,000 objects.

02:07 They're not all on the visitor route but we do have to clean and maintain all our collection.

02:12 So annually we inspect every item within the collection and we compare it to see whether

02:18 it's deteriorated over the year just to see if we've maybe got some insect infestation

02:23 in the furniture, maybe it's active or just to check that something that's on a visitor

02:27 route isn't accidentally getting rubbed and touched and therefore a textile is being destroyed

02:32 in that whole process.

02:33 So it's a really good opportunity for us to get close to our collection and make sure

02:39 that we're presenting it in the best ways possible to maintain it.

02:42 Now we've seen some ladies cleaning some of the glassware and some of the pottery.

02:49 That is very intricate work.

02:52 Do they need training for that?

02:54 We do.

02:55 So we ask volunteers who are volunteering here anyway if they'll be interested in doing

02:59 conservation clean.

03:00 It is only over the winter period and we give them a little brief training session to show

03:06 them the process and why we do these things.

03:09 It's not that we're overly house-proud, it's just that we need to maintain these items.

03:13 So nature would naturally decline these objects so chemical reactions can interact with the

03:22 object and rust will, you know, metals will corrode.

03:26 You know we might get insects, moths etc.

03:28 So we have to make sure that we do a really deep clean and we couldn't do that without

03:32 our volunteers and they do enjoy it.

03:34 They do come back year on year and they do enjoy the process.

03:37 And that's right down to dust on the walls, isn't it?

03:41 We do everything.

03:42 We will lift a carpet, we will vacuum the top, the underside of the carpet and the underlay

03:45 as well.

03:46 But again, these are the spaces that the moths like to hide their larvae, the carpet beetles

03:51 like to live.

03:52 So if we do that and we do it thoroughly once a year, then hopefully we can stop any major

03:57 infestations occurring during the following year.

04:00 How many volunteers do you have working on this?

04:03 We have a reactive volunteer group of about 20 volunteers.

04:07 We could have more but obviously capacity wise you can only maintain or manage so many

04:12 per session so we have about 20 volunteers.

04:15 And how many rooms are they working in?

04:17 They will be working in all the visitor rooms so I think we have about 15 rooms.

04:22 But obviously we have got the connecting spaces as well, corridors, all of these spaces are

04:27 only doing in this brief time period.

04:31 And how long will it take you?

04:34 We will be finished by the time we reopen so February half term week, February 10th

04:40 we will be done, everything will be back, presentation will be back to normal and everything

04:44 will be clean.

04:45 So it's not long is it really?

04:48 Not long.

04:49 It's going to go quickly.

04:50 And again, this is why we need the volunteers, we really could not do this without our volunteers

04:53 in such a short time period.

04:55 They are wonderful.

04:58 The conservation clean is expected to continue until the February half term when the house

05:04 reopens to the public.

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